Dearest family and friends, It’s YOU! You dreamed with us of what could be. You gave, and gave some more. You rallied around us, praying for us, walking laps with us, buying rubber-band bracelets and Christmas ornaments, hiring a 6-year-old mother’s helper, letting us wash your cars in a downpour. It’s all because of you! We leave in 12 days for a trip almost a year in the making, and I can hardly believe it’s actually time. When we started dreaming of raising money to build a playground for 300 kids, it seemed almost impossible. But we’ve learned through prayer and obedience that nothing is impossible with God, and we now find ourselves with a fully-funded playground and an-almost funded trip for Brandon, Emerson and me to go to Romania to see our playground come to life! We wanted to give you an overview of what we’ll be doing while we’re away and to ask you to pray for us as we’re gone. We leave on May 30 from Atlanta and arrive in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday, May 30. Mihaela (my dear Romanian friend) will pick us up at the airport and we will travel about four hours to Sighisoara, her home city and the area where our playground will be built. We’ll go to church at Manna Church on Sunday, and on Monday morning, bright and early, the playground company will show up with all of our equipment and the building will begin. Throughout the week Brandon will oversee construction and Emerson, Mihaela, and I will be planning and preparing for the playground grand-opening celebration on Friday. We will also take time throughout the week to do a few other things, ministry-wise. Emerson and I will head into some gypsy villages to deliver bread and candy. Brandon is preaching in a juvenile prison about an hour away from Sighi. Emerson and I will also be delivering some shirts for a friend’s ministry; he owns a clothing line (vincent-reeve.myshopify) and has a ministry portion of his ministry that he is getting ready to launch called “Dress the World.” It’s a buy-a-shirt/give-a-shirt philosophy, and the first people group he is aiming to “dress” is the Romanian Gypsies. What a privilege for us to deliver his first batch of shirts! On Friday, 6/6, the playground will have been completed, and that afternoon/evening we are going to throw the party of all parties for over 300 gypsy kids and their families to celebrate its opening. Two local churches are going to assist us, and even my sweet friend from Norway and her two young daughters are joining us in Sighisoara to help with the party! We’re making balloon animals, blowing bubbles, bringing 120-piece kit of sidewalk chalk, painting faces, having food and passing out a BOATLOAD of candy! We will also have a time of sharing about WHY the playground was built for them - because they are loved and known by their Heavenly Father who longs for them to know Him in return. It will be a really special time. On Saturday afternoon we will leave Sighisoara along with Mihaela and our friends from Norway, and we will all travel together to Norway where we will stay for 3 days before we come back to Atlanta. Our friends own a beautiful hotel on the coast of the North Sea and have invited us back to stay (rough, I know, but someone’s gotta do it). This will be a sweet time of processing our trip with Emerson before we head back into the American Dream (and I say that quite sarcastically). Brandon will be preaching in the Baptist Church that our friends attend on Sunday, so pray for him! :) This is a new experience for him but something he’s gifted in, so I know it will be fabulous. We return home late on the afternoon of June 10 and I know we will be itching to see our boys! Specific ways to pray: -pray for our boys as they’re home, for their health and safety, and pray for our favorite family babysitter, Katie Conway, my in-laws, and my parents as they all play a role in watching the boys. -pray for us, for safe travels, flight connections, and health and safety; pray for Em’s health especially as she’s never traveled out of the country before -pray for her as she will surely be tired and emotionally wrung out, that we know how to help her best and to help her process what she sees and experiences -pray that she will experience God in a huge, life-altering way, and that she will never be the same; pray that God gives her a lifelong heart for the world (and the same for us, for that matter!) -pray for Mihaela, even now, as she coordinates all of the details on the ground in Romania -pray for the playground company as they plan for and deliver all of our stuff, that it makes it and is built in good time -pray for the party on Friday, that the people of this village in Sighi who are told by the culture and the government that they are nothing and unworthy will hear and understand that they are valued and loved, not just by God, but by His people -pray for Brandon and I as we seek God’s vision and direction for our family’s future, that we’d have clarity and purpose -pray that we have wisdom as we move forward, as many people have expressed interest in us helping them take on playground projects and other family-ministry opportunities, that we’d know how to navigate that and what the means for our family We COULD NOT do this without you. He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and God will reward him for all he has done.” (Prov. 19:17a) YOU have shown kindness to the poor, to the forgotten. YOU are a critical part of this trip and just because you’re not “going” doesn’t mean YOU’RE not going. You are going. Your prayers, your investments, your excitement and support for our family are going. We are taking you with us and we can’t WAIT to tell you about all that God’s done when we get home. “ Love and hugs, Jordan, Brandon, and of course Miss Em
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 00:55:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015